A study on expectations of teachers and perceptions of administrators in decision making in the Agricultural, Agricultural-industrial, and Fisheries schools in the Province of Iloilo

Abstract

On the assumption that decision making, as a vital element in educational administration, directly affects the effectiveness of the school as an organization in the productive realization of goals, a survey concerning it was made among 181 teachers and ten administrators in the eight agricultural, agricultural-industrial, and fisheries schools in the province of Iloilo. The objective of the study was to compare two types of data: (1) the expectations of the teachers from the decisions of the administrators, and (2) the perceptions of the administrators of the administrator's role in decision making. Some subsidiary problems were also studied. These were the relatedness of the teachers' expectations with their own observations; and the relatedness of the five factors of sex, teaching experience, teaching assignment, college preparation, and kind of school, first with the expectations of the teachers and then with the opinions of the administrators, concerning decision making. Data were collected using two sets of questionnaires: one for the teachers and another for the administrators, each consisting of sixty items. Parallel items in both questionnaires were correspondingly constructed so as to elicit appropriate response on the same idea. The investigator himself administered the distribution and collection of the questionnaires. Ninety-eight per cent of the teachers and all of the administrators returned their questionnaires duly accomplished. Since frequency data were involved, the chi-square (X2) was used to determine the significance of the findings. It was determined beforehand that only chi-squares at the 5 per cent level, with one degree of freedom, would be considered significant. Significant findings in the survey were as follows: 1. In fourteen items, the expectations of the teachers were not borne out by observable practice in their schools. 2. Sex, among the primary variables, was the most related with expectations in that relatedness was indicated in five items. Teaching experience and kind of school, with one item each indicating relatedness, were the least related with expectations. 3. There was disagreement among the administrators on how to treat twenty instances requiring decisions. 4. Teachers' expectations and administrators' perceptions coincided in thirty-nine items. The teachers agreed among themselves and the administrators could not reach agreement, and vice versa, in fifteen items. The teachers and the administrators could not agree, within their respective groups in six items. There was no instance when the teachers agreed and the administrators disagreed, and vice versa. From the findings in the study, the following conclusions are made: 1. Since most of the teachers' expectations were observed by them to be practiced in their schools, they should have little grounds for being unhappy in their work. Of the sixty items in the questionnaire, the teachers observed that only fourteen practices were not in accordance with their expectations. This represented 23.33 per cent of their expectations not being practiced or expected in their schools. 2. Of the five factors, sex had the most number of items which had relationship to expectations. In making pre dictions about teachers’ expectations, the investigator should give primary consideration to sex as a factor. 3. There was still room for the administrators to improve their administrative behavior and leadership styles. Their differences in opinion regarding basic matters in school administration indicated conflicting ideas which should be resolved. 4. While it was true that more than one-half of the total number of items indicated “congruency” between teachers' expectations and administrators' perceptions, there were still grounds for possible misunderstanding and friction. The items where "dissimilarity” and "incongruency” were shown could be considered as weak points or danger spots which could hamper the smooth operation of the schools and undermine the interpersonal relations between teachers and administrators. The following recommendations were made with regard to the results of the survey: 1. The items in which there were "dissimilarity" and "incongruency" between teachers' expectations and administrators' perceptions should be taken up and clarified during professional meetings of the faculty and other in-service education activities in order to prevent deterioration of existing conditions. 2. To get desirable results from educational administration, administrators should employ participative and consultative decision making procedures. With the teachers and the students becoming very militant groups— conscious and jealous of their rights and prerogatives— the administrators may be spared many embarrassing situations and un pleasant moments by involving all those concerned when making decisions that will affect them. 3. With school administration becoming a heavy and burdensome task in view of the many social and economic factors which constantly affect the schools, it would be well to conduct further studies in decision making and other processes in educational administration in order to obtain valuable facts and data that may prove useful in running a school system satisfactorily. 4. A follow-up study on values involved in decision making should be made in order to obtain more information from teachers and administrators, on this crucial aspect of educational administration.